Muse: Road To Wembley Part 4 – Glastonbury, triumph and tragedy

Matt Bellamy and co speak on NME.COM all week

All week before Muse play their Wembley Stadium gigs, we’re going to be tracing their career from the beginning to their crowning glory.

Matt: “It (Glastonbury 2004) was the first gig of that size where I felt really not nervous. I’m always nervous before gigs, but I remember saying to Dom and Chris as we were walking to the stage, ‘I feel fine, I’m not worried or anything, I just know this is going to be brilliant’. I think that’s what stands out for me about that, the walk to the stage, and the feeling it was going to be brilliant. Having a heavier edge to the sound and being able to play to a UK audience. That was what we’ve always gone for, so it was good to be accepted by the Glastonbury crowd. I used to go a lot when I was younger – I used to love that festival but me and Dom and Chris always thought it would be Reading where we’d end up. I feel a lot more at home at Glastonbury rather than say Donington, even though I know we could do Donington too.”

Chris: “Everyone was looking at us like underdogs before that. We were terrified; we didn’t think we were big enough to be doing it either. Headlining Glastonbury, you can’t say no. Then on the day we realised what we were actually doing. We turned up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon – it was terrible, it was raining. I think James Brown was playing – It was one of the most loaded looking crowds. Morrissey went on and got arsey with the crowd, and that didn’t go down too well. He was just being a bit of a cock. We were like this is gonna be awful – Morrissey’s a huge name and James Brown’s a huge name, and people have said to us, ‘What are they doing headlining?’ And we came off and we’d played the best gig of our lives and the crowd was immense.”

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Matt: “Dom’s dad dying after the show, it’s a terrible time for anyone, but I’m not sure those things can ever happen at a good time. Everyone has to go through those things, it’s a shame it happened there, but I don’t think it dampens the way Dom would feel about that gig. If anything I think Dom was glad that his Dad was there to see what was then our finest moment. If you can say anything positive about it it’s that. But obviously the aftermath was a hazy blurry, nightmarish affair…”

Come back tomorrow at 3pm for Part Five, when the band reach megastardom.

Meanwhile the full, extended interview is available in this week’s NME which hits UK newsstands from June 13.

Not only that, but the magazine comes free with a special CD hand-picked by the band themselves and featuring brand new Muse track – ’Man Of Mystery’.

Meanwhile we will also be covering the Wembley Stadium shows themselves with news, blogs and pictures live from both gigs this weekend.

You can win tickets to see the shows NME.COM now.

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In the meantime you can look back at Muse‘s career in pictures here on NME.COM.

So make sure you stay with NME and NME.COM for the ultimate coverage of Muse‘s Wembley shows and check back on June 18 to hear an exclusive version of Muse’s new single, ’Map Of The Problematique’, which will be recorded live at Wembley over the weekend.

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